History

Early history

Universal Music was once the record company attached to film studioUniversal Pictures. The company's origins go back to the formation of the American branch of Decca Records in September 1934.[1][2] The Decca Record Co. Ltd. of England spun American Decca off in 1939.[3]MCA Inc. merged with American Decca in 1962. The present organization was formed when its parent company Seagram purchased PolyGram in May 1998 and merged it with Universal Music Group in early 1999. However, the name had first appeared in 1996 when MCA Music Entertainment Group was renamed Universal Music Group. The PolyGram acquisition included Deutsche Grammophon which traces its ancestry to Berliner Gramophone making Deutsche Grammophon UMG's oldest unit. UMG's Canadian unit traces its ancestry to a Berliner Gramophone breakaway firm the Compo Company.

Between 1995 and 2000, music companies were found to have artificially inflated compact disc prices through the use of illegal marketing practices such as minimum advertised pricing, doing so in order to end price wars that began in the early 1990s by discounters such as Best Buy and Target.[4] A settlement in 2002 included the music publishers and distributors; Sony Music, Warner Music, Bertelsmann Music Group, EMI Music and Universal Music Group. In restitution for price fixing they agreed to pay a $67.4 million fine and distribute $75.7 million in CDs to public and non-profit groups but admitted no wrongdoing.[5] It is estimated suppliers/customers were overcharged by nearly $500 million and up to $5 per album which conflicts with proof of sale and purchase interests.[4]

Vivendi subsidiary

With the 2004 acquisition of Universal Studios by General Electric and merging with GE's NBC, Universal Music Group was cast under separate management from the eponymous film studio. This is the second time a music company has done so, the first being the separation of Time Warner and Warner Music Group. In February 2006, the label became 100% owned by French media conglomerate Vivendi when Vivendi purchased the last 20% from Matsushita (renamed as Panasonic Corporation in 2008), the group's sole owner from 1990 to 1995 and co-owner from 1995 to 2006. On June 25, 2007, Vivendi completed its €1.63 billion ($2.4 billion) purchase of BMG Music Publishing, after receiving European Union regulatory approval, having announced the acquisition on September 6, 2006.[6][7]

In May 2007, UMG was accused of abusing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in order to quell criticism, by forcing YouTube to remove several videos which contained UMG's music. Eventually, UMG retracted its claims after being challenged by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.[8] In the same year, UMG was accused of using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to indiscriminately remove content related to the artist Prince, most notably a twenty-nine-second home video in which a child danced to one of Prince's songs.[9] In April 2016, UMG had the audio muted of a video clip showing Katherine Jenkins singing the British national anthem. They claimed that "God Save the Queen" was a copyrighted song, and YouTube initially complied with this request, but later allowed the video to be viewed with the original audio track.[10]

In December 2007, UMG announced a deal with Imeem which allows users of the social network to listen to any track from Universal's catalogue for free with a portion of the advertising generated by the music being shared with the record label.[12] Two weeks after the deal was announced Michael Robertson speculated on the secret terms of the deal and argued that ultimately this was a bad deal for imeem. This speculation lead to a flame war on the Pho digital media email list as imeem representatives denied his claims and dismissed his theories as unfounded.[13] All traffic was redirected to MySpace after the company acquired Imeem on December 8, 2009.

In 2011, EMI sold its recorded music operations to Universal Music Group for £1.2 billion ($1.9 billion) and its music publishing operations to a Sony-led consortium for $2.2 billion.[20] Among the other companies that had competed for the recorded music business was Warner Music Group which was reported to have made a $2 billion bid.[21]IMPALA opposed the merger.[22] In March 2012, the European Union opened an investigation into the acquisition[23] The EU asked rivals and consumer groups whether the deal would result in higher prices and shut out competitors.[24] Coincidentally, UMG sister company StudioCanal had owned the EMI Films library for several years.

On December 9, 2011, Megaupload published a music video titled "The Mega Song", showing artists including Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys, and will.i.am endorsing the company. The music video was also uploaded to YouTube, but was removed following a takedown request by UMG. Megaupload said that the video contained no infringing content, commenting: "we have signed agreements with every featured artist for this campaign." Megaupload requested an apology from UMG, and filed a lawsuit against the company in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, on December 12, 2011.[25][26] UMG denied that the takedown was ordered under the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and said that the takedown was "pursuant to the UMG-YouTube agreement", which gives UMG "the right to block or remove user-posted videos through YouTube's CMS (Content Management System) based on a number of contractually specified criteria."[27] The video was subsequently returned to YouTube, with the reasons for the UMG takedown remaining unclear.[28] Lawyers for will.i.am initially claimed that he had never agreed to the project, and on December 12, he denied any involvement in the takedown notice.[29]

On November 8, 2012, Universal Music and Hewlett-Packard launched a marketing operation: with a HP connected Music computer, the customer can access music from Universal artists, as well as exclusive content.[37]

On March 20, 2013, UMG announced the worldwide extension of their exclusive distribution deal with the Disney Music Group, excluding Japan and Russia. As a result of this deal DMG's labels and artists have access to UMG's roster of multiplatinum and Grammy Award-winning producers and songwriters on a worldwide basis.[45] The exclusive deal also saw UMG granted unlimited access to all rights pertaining to Disney's 85-year back catalog of soundtracks and albums.[46]

On April 2, 2013, the gospel music divisions of Motown Records and EMI merged to form a new label called Motown Gospel.[47] In May 2013, Japanese company SoftBank offered 8.5 billion US dollars to Vivendi for the acquisition of UMG, but Vivendi rejected it.[48] As of November 14, 2013, Universal Music will now distribute Warner Music Group's releases in the Middle East as a result of the integration of EMI's branch in the said region.[49][better source needed]

On April 1, 2014, Universal Music announced the disbandment of Island Def Jam Music, one of four operational umbrella groups within Universal Music. Universal CEO Lucian Grainge said of the closure, "No matter how much we might work to build 'IDJ' as a brand, that brand could never be as powerful as each of IDJ's constituent parts."[50] Effective on the day of the announcement, Island Records and Def Jam will now operate as autonomous record labels. David Massey and Bartels, who worked respectively at Island and Def Jam Records, will lead the new record labels independently.[50]Barry Weiss who previously moved from Sony Music to head up Island Def Jam Music back in 2012 when Motown Records was incorporated into Island Def Jam has stepped down from Universal Music. Additionally, as part of the changes to the labels, Motown Records will be transferred to Los Angeles to become part of the Capitol Music Group—previous Vice President Ethiopia Habtemariam was promoted to Label President for Motown Records.[50]Republic Records now operates independently while the Interscope Geffen A&M group remains unchanged.[50]

Universal Music Group started entering into the film and TV production with the 2014 purchase of Eagle Rock Entertainment. UMG's first major film production was Amy while taking part in Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck and The Beatles: Eight Days a Week documentaries. In January 2016, UMG made two hires David Blackman, from Laurence Mark Production where he was president of production as head of film and television development and production, and Scott Landis, theater producer as special advisor on theatrical development and production. UMG Executive Vice President Michele Anthony and Universal Music Publishing Group chair and CEO Jody Gerson have over site of the pair.[51] On February 11, 2017, PolyGram Entertainment was relaunched as a film and television unit of Universal Music Group under David Blackman.[52] Vivdendi and Red Bull GmbH had their units, StudioCanal and Universal Music Group and Terra Mater Film Studios respectively, create a co-development partnership for feature films in May 2017.[53]

In August 2017, UMG and Grace/Beyond agreed to develop three new music-based television series, 27, Melody Island and Mixtape. 27 would focus on musicians at the age of 27, an age at which several iconic musicians died. Melody Island is an animated series based on uplifting tropical island feel music with live craft segments. Mixtape is dramatically structured similar to how a mixtape works with each connecting to a song.[54]

London

Universal Music Group Global (formerly known as Universal Music Group International (UMGI)) is headquartered in Kensington, London. Global manages UMG's offices in most countries outside of North America.

Berlin

Universal Music GmbH, the German subsidiary, is headquartered in Berlin. It has moved in 2002 from Hamburg to the district Friedrichshain at the river Spree.